7 My Indian Heroes Classical Music Sitartist Ravi Shanker
July 1st 2008 02:23
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The Indian sitar is derived from the long-necked lutes of western Asia and from the veena family of Indian musical instruments. It should not be confused with the similarly named "setar". In the Persian language, sitar (سی تار ) literally means "30 strings," while setar (سه تار ) means "3 strings." Both names are deceptive, however. The guitar appears to be derived from earlier instruments known in ancient India and Central Asia as the Sitar or Setar.
Instruments of central and west Asia circulated in the South Asian subcontinent from at least the 12th century, and some were later modified and adapted to Indian uses. Instruments of this name are current in Iran and Central Asia today, but the Central Asian or Persian setar and the Indian sitar are now similar in name only. The sitar is currently one of the predominant concert instruments of Hindustani (North Indian classical) music.
The premier Indian court instrument of the 17th and 18th centuries was the rudra vina, of the stick zither family, and this became the model for some of the distinctive characteristics of the Indian sitar, most notably its raised metal frets, platform bridge, and gourd resonators. Some scholars attempt to identify the sitar with the medieval tri-tantri "three-stringed" vina mentioned in Sanskrit texts, but current scholarship traces the Indian sitar to eighteenth century Delhi. Since the nineteenth century, the sitar has been one of the predominant instruments of Hindustani music. It is also used in film and other light music and in accompaniment to dance. Regional versions of the sitar are found in rural north India, and Pakistan.
The sitar became widely known in the western world through the work of Pandit Ravi Shankar beginning in the late 1950s. It became a youth phenomenon in the 60s after Beatle George Harrison took lessons from Shankar and played sitar in songs including "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)," "Love You Too," and "Within You Without You." Heavy metal band, Metallica used the sitar for an intro to "Wherever I May Roam" which has a Middle Eastern like sound. The Rolling Stones also used sitar in "Paint It, Black" and the legacy of sitar in pop culture was begun. Dr Anand anandjee
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